1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to digest calculations. More particularly, the present invention relates to the use of iSCSI to send digest-calculation commands.
2. Background Information
In the area of network storage, it is sometimes necessary or desirable to compare some or all of the contents of storage resources. However, it is not practical to send all of the data across a communications link, which itself may be slow, or even if not, the resulting performance decrease may be unacceptable. Thus, checksum or “digest” calculations are used as a means for fast comparison with a reasonable level of accuracy.
In the past, triggering of such digest calculations has been accomplished by custom network protocols, not necessarily compatible with standard transport protocols, and typically requiring additional handling by the network infrastructure team.
Thus, a need exists for a simpler way to trigger digest calculations that are compatible with standard transport protocols.